Five Steps to Heaven
by IceeWarriorQueen
Summary: There are five steps you have to take before you reach the doors of Heaven. Natsu has to find that out on his own.


**Hello my lovely snowflakes!**

**I just got this idea for a one-shot when I was in health class today, so I figured "Why not write it?"**

**Sorry if it's bad, I don't have a lot of experience with these but I'll certainly try my best!**

**So now it's time to enter the snowstorm...**

**DISCLAIMER: IF I OWNED FAIRY TAIL, NALU WOULD BE CANON BY NOW!**

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><p><strong>- Step 1 -<strong>

"Nonsense!" Natsu screamed. "Lucy's not gone!"

"Natsu, we told you already that you just have to accept it." Master Makarov was surprisingly calm in this situation, despite the negative aura of the room.

Every member of Fairy Tail, including Guildarts, was gathered in the guild building at this moment. The mood of the guild was far from the usual happy, upbeat manner. The only two who seemed to be able to speak were Natsu and the master.

"No! There is no way in hell Lucy would just leave without telling me first! It's not true!" Natsu and Makarov had been in this intense argument for the past hour. Neither of them was getting anywhere.

"I understand how you must feel Natsu; we all feel the same way. But you have to realize the fact that Lucy is gone and she's never coming back." The words Makarov spoke were harsh, but his tone was sincere.

"Then why wouldn't she talk to me about it? Why would not tell her own husband that she was leaving forever?' said Natsu. He turned away from the master to face everyone in the guild.

"Of all people she would tell, why not me?"

No one dared to speak. His words only caused to sink even farther down in their seats, if that was possible.

"I don't care what any of you people say! Lucy's going to come back, I guarantee it."

"Natsu!" Erza chimed in. Everyone was shocked to see that there was another person who was willing to speak to flame dragon slayer.

"You can't keep lying to yourself, it's not healthy! Can't you see that your words are only bringing pain to everyone? They know she won't come back and all you're doing is reminding them!"

Natsu slammed his fist against the nearest table, causing everyone to flinch.

"She's coming back!" he started to swiftly walk towards the front door.

"And no one can tell me otherwise!" He slammed the door behind him. Once he left, everyone became just a little bit less tense.

"Do you think he knows why she's not coming back?" Levy spoke in a soft, shaky voice that was barely even audible.

"He knows," said Erza in a calm manner. She signed in defeat in leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. "He just doesn't want to believe it."

"I can't believe those guys!" Natsu was stomping through town giving off a bad vibe. "How can they really believe that Lucy would just up and leave all of us? Especially me!"

Natsu and Lucy became a couple when they were 21 and got married two years ago when they were 23.

"We always talked about the future. Building a family together. And just staying together forever." His tone was less angry and more relaxed with a hint of sadness.

"So why would she leave me before we got a chance to do any of that? I know she's coming back, and when she does I'm going to tell all of those idiots back there that I was right and they were wrong!"

**- Step 2 -**

"Where is she?!" It had been a week since Lucy left and Natsu was getting skeptical.

"What could she possibly be doing that takes this long to finish!" He was pacing back and forth in his house, just as he had been doing for the past seven days.

"I need to calm down. I need to get some fresh air." He began to walk towards the front door, yanking it open when he reached it.

He paused to see Erza standing at the door with her hand half-raised, clearly about to knock. Levy, Gray, Gajeel, Wendy, Happy and Carla were standing behind her.

She quickly lowered her arm and cleared her throat.

"Hello Natsu." She said calmly.

"What do you people want?" The group could sense Natsu's anger and irritation and slowly started to back away from the door, but Erza wasn't giving up so easily.

"We haven't seen you at the guild lately. We wanted to come and check up on you; make sure you were alright," said Erza, her voice remaining in its calmed tone.

"Why wouldn't I be alright?" Natsu's anger had been forgotten as he was pushing himself to engage in communication with other people.

"Well, since we haven't seen you for a while, we figured you must've finally accepted that Lucy won't be coming back…" her voice trailed off as she saw the irritated look in his eyes.

"Again with this? Look, I told you before and I guess I have to tell you again. Lucy's isn't gone! She's going to come back, I know she will." Natsu was about to slam the door when Erza pushed her arm against the wood and forced it open.

"We didn't only come here to check up on you, and I'm not leaving until both my missions are complete." Natsu glared at her, but still dropped his hand from the door causing the red haired woman to do the same.

"Next week, on Friday, we're having a little get-together. It'll be a great way for everyone to come together in this time of depression and-" Erza was cut short by Natsu slamming the door in her face.

She sighed, showing that she knew that would happen and was fully prepared for it.

"He's never going to get over this is he?" said Happy. Wendy looked over to him and gave him a sincere smile. She scooped him up in her arms and gently squeezed. "He'll come around. We all have to eventually." She said.

"Why Lucy…" Natsu leaned his back against the door after slamming it. "Why aren't you back yet?"

"Everyone seems so convinced that you're gone and it's causing them so much pain. Why would you do that to them?!" Natsu's back slid against the wood and he was now crouched against it.

"Why would you put your friends through so much pain?! Why would you put _me_ through so much pain?!" Natsu's face had become wet with tears of anger and hurt.

"You promised me a future; a lifetime! You told me that you loved me! So why? Why would you betray me like this?!"

**- Step 3 -**

Natsu hadn't left his house for two days. He believed that as soon as he did, Lucy would knock on his door and if he wasn't there to answer, she would leave thinking he had accepted her disappearance.

"It's been nine days already, Luce. When are you coming back?" His voice was soft and quiet.

He hadn't opened his door to anyone that had come for the past two days. He would excitedly get up and go to his window to check who was there, just to lose hope when he didn't see the beautiful golden hair that he missed so much.

His friends would talk to him through the door, pleading with him to let them in, but he lost the fire that willed him to fight his case. The case that claimed Lucy to still be returning one day.

"Did you leave because I kept using the window instead of the door? I promise I'll never do it again if it bothered you so much."

Natsu was sitting on the bed with his head buried deep in his knees. Little did he know that every day, Gray would be outside leaning against his wall, listening.

"Was it because I've been dragging you on so many missions with me, or maybe because I told you I didn't want to move in with you? I didn't mean I didn't want to live with you Lucy. I was dragging on all those missions so that I could make enough money to buy us a house. A house big enough for all of our friends to come over and for us to start our family."

Gray had become used to hearing Natsu talking to himself, it was actually one of the biggest reasons he still came over to his house. If Natsu wouldn't talk to him directly, he can at least get some kind of information by listening to him through a wall.

"I almost had enough money for a house I've been looking at for a while now. You should see it when you get back Lucy. You would love it. I promise I'll try really hard to make any changes to it if you don't like it."

Gray get up from his leaning position and began to walk away from the small house. He always left when he felt Natsu's words should be kept private, and this was one of those moments.

"I'll do anything for you Lucy, you know that. So why are you taking so long to get back? I've been so lonely without you. I'm making all these promises to you, but I can't keep them if you don't come back. Do you want to be a person who doesn't keep their promises?"

Natsu always spoke as if Lucy could hear every word he said, a fact Gray knew the best. He believed that no matter where Lucy was, his words would always reach her.

"You are coming back aren't you Lucy? I promise I'll never leave you side again once you get back. And I promise to keep all of my promises."

**- Step 4 -**

"She's not coming back." That thought had been ringing in Natsu's mind for the entire day. It was day eleven since Lucy's disappearance and Natsu had already given up hope. He had actually given up o day four, but he never let himself believe it to be true.

He never wanted to accept the fact that the love of his life, his true love, his Lucy, was gone and never coming back.

Natsu had been blindly walking through the streets of Magnolia, not knowing where his legs were taking him ad honestly not caring.

He was broken. He was dying inside. A hole in his heart had opened up after Lucy left and it was slowly growing bigger, eating away at his very being. His depressing thoughts weren't doing anything to slow down this process. They were actually speeding it up.

"I can't believe this is happening to me." Those were the first words that Natsu had verbally spoken all day. He thought that speaking aloud would only cause more pain, and he was right.

Natsu soon found himself in front of Lucy's apartment. He had been afraid to go anywhere near for the past week, but somehow right now he was drawn to it.

He skillfully climbed up the side of the wall and entered through the window that was always left unlocked. Natsu liked to think it was left that way just for him.

The room was left untouched, exactly the same way it was when Lucy left. Natsu looked around, associating everything he saw with a memory.

He saw Lucy's bed and immediately he mind wandered to the first time they made love. It was awkward and scary for the both of them, but neither ever regretted giving up their purity to each other.

He walked over the bed and gently laid down on it. He buried his face in her pillow and inhaled. Her scent was still strong in the fabric.

He drew his attention away from the wonderful smell and saw a picture that he and Lucy had taken for their first anniversary framed on her nightstand. He smiled widely at the memories that picture held.

That was the anniversary where they spent the entire day just running around town, not planning anything. And that's just how Natsu liked it, unplanned and wild.

Natsu smile slowly faded. "But not this kind of unplanned."

Natsu laid on the bed for hours, just looking around the room to try to collect as many memories as possible. Eventually, his eyes became lidded and he fell into a deep sleep, something that he had been avoiding for the past few days.

He feared that his sleep would be filled with nightmares and horrors about the stellar mage. But while he was in that room, his precious memories made sure to fight off every nightmare that tried to attack his mind, and fill his slumber with wonderful dreams that he never wanted to wake up from.

**- Step 5 -**

Natsu walked down the familiar streets of Magnolia with ease. Before, doing such a thing was foreign to him as he expected to be ambushed my negative thoughts and bad memories.

He was slowly approaching his destination and he just couldn't wipe the smile off of his face. For the past few days he never even thought he could smile let alone not be able to stop smiling.

He finally felt the rough feeling of grass underneath his shoes that he had been waiting for. He tried to remain on only the green parts of the ground. Everyone who was already there stared at him in shock. They all shifted in their plastic seats to stare. No one dared to approach him. Like a deer in the forest, they feared that any sudden movement would scare him away.

They never expected to see Natsu at such an event. Natsu didn't even spare a single one of them even a passing glance. His eyes were set onto one thing and his mission was to reach it before anyone stopped him.

He finally reached the spot that had been drawing him in and turned to face everyone else. They stared at him with wide eyes, secretly pleading for him to not do anything reckless.

"Hello everyone," said Natsu.

His formal speech shocked people even more as they knew that Natsu never spoke in that way.

"I know you might all be surprised to see me here, in fact I am too. But, I need to get these words off my chest while I have all of your attention."

Everyone sitting fixed themselves into a comfortable position while those still standing rushed to find a seat. Once everyone was settled, Natsu began to speak again.

"I know that the past two week must have been hard on everyone, but I've been acting like I was the only one. I've been a complete ass to everyone who was only trying to help me, and I wanted to apologize."

Certain people in the audience nodded as an acceptance of his apology. Natsu took a deep breath, as he knew he was getting to the important part of his speech.

"I also want to thank you for avoiding to use certain words around me. You knew that they would send me over the edge and you were trying to prevent that from happening."

Some people in the audience were shocked to know that Natsu had realized how cautious they were all being.

"Lucy has been a big part of my life for so long now, I feel like she took a piece of me when she left. I tried to substitute that missing piece with the fake thought that Lucy wasn't really gone. I tried convincing myself that I was still whole, and that Lucy was right beside me the whole time. But now I know that's not true. She's gone and won't come back; can't come back." Natsu paused. Everyone else leaned in closer, curious as to what he might say next.

"All this time, I thought it was me who was waiting for Lucy. I thought that one day she would just burst through my doors and scream 'I'm home'." He paused again.

"But now I know that's not true. It's Lucy who's waiting for us. She's waiting for us to return to our rightful homes. She's waiting for us to join her up there as the guardians of the night sky. And I'm proud to say that I'm going to live my full life before I accept my position as her partner."

All of the people in the audience were crying by then; their black clothing being stained with tears.

"But until that moment," Natsu continued.

"I know I won't be alone. I can live my life with all of you, and we take our positions together one day. And every night, I look up into the sky and know that Lucy is there, shining brighter than any star. And she's watching over us, protecting us, and giving us the energy to deal with our everyday lives."

Everyone stood up in their seats and cheered. On that depressing Saturday morning, Natsu gave them exactly what they needed: The courage and power to carry on. Now that they had all taken those five long steps, they were all patiently waiting at the doors of heaven. And they knew Lucy was waiting on the other side, ready to open those doors.

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><p><strong>And we've made it to ice castle!<strong>

**So there's my little one-shot.**

**If you didn't notice, the "five steps to heaven" were actually the five stages of grieving.**

**Step 1 - Denial**

**Step 2 - Anger**

**Step 3 - Bargaining**

**Step 4 - Depression**

**Step 5 - Acceptance**

**That's what we started learning about in our health class and this idea just popped into my head. **

**It was so much more dramatic then I thought it would be. So much drama-rama!**

**Again, this is my first time ever writing anything this dramatic or writing a one-shot so I'm sorry if it's bad.**

**Well that's all I gotta say for now, so I'll see ya next storm!**


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